Distributed virtual san

ABSTRACT

The distributed virtual SAN infrastructure provides a plurality of host systems with a scalable dynamically expandable distributed virtual storage pool, which powered by a virtual storage automatic construct protocol. The distributed virtual SAN infrastructure includes one or more IP SAN units, the management console, the distributing control management station and the network infrastructure, wherein, the network infrastructure provides the communication links between all systems in this distributed virtual SAN. The storage of any IP SAN unit can be shared and accessed by multiple hosts. On the other hand, a single host may be assigned and able to access multiple volumes from multiple IP SAN units, which in fact, effectively provide each host a virtual scalable storage system. In addition, the storage accessing goes directly through communication link between hosts and SAN units, which means it is out-band accessed. This has proved to have better performance and scalability than those in-band accessed virtual SAN. Further, this also allows virtual storage pool to be dynamically expanded by adding one or more IP SAN unit without interrupting normal data accessing from hosts. The implementation of web-based multi-concurrent tasks capable console allows entire distributed virtual SAN infrastructure to be managed and monitored from centralized console. Finally, The IP based distributed virtual SAN infrastructure represents a new type of central controlled distributed scalable virtual machine (CCDSVM). The software modules used in IP based distributed virtual SAN infrastructure represents a new type of web base operating system model. Further, the methods and principles of IP based distributed virtual SAN storage pool automatic building and the delivery of storage service to client based on demanding also can be applied to various other distributed services for their service pool automatic building and services delivery which CCDSVM infrastructure.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

[0001] This invention is the continuation of the previous invention,application No. 60/401,238, of “Concurrent Web Based Multi-Task Supportfor Control Management System”, which focus on web based multi-taskingsupport for web-console in the central controlled distributed scalablevirtual machine environment. The present invention focus on distributedIP SAN based storage service and other distributed services in thecentral controlled distributed scalable virtual machine environment. Itrelates generally to IP based out-band accessed distributed virtual SANinfrastructure, its automatic configuration, its storage volumesallocation and accessing services. This invention also presents theapplicability of the principles of IP based distributed virtual SANservice to other services and applications in a similar environment.

BACKGROUND INFORMATION

[0002] a) Terminology:

[0003] CCDSVM:

[0004] It is an abbreviation for central controlled distributed scalablevirtual machine system. The CCDSVM allows a control management stationto control a group of systems and provide distributed services to clientsystem in Intranet and Internet as well as in LAN environment.

[0005] Storage Media:

[0006] Storage media includes magnetic hard disk drives, solid statedisk, optical storage drive, and memory card etc.

[0007] Storage Connection and Control Media:

[0008] Storage connection and control media includes controller of IDE,SCSI, Fibre optical, Ethernet, USB, or may be wireless media and allrelated cables etc. Each controller of storage media such as Raid, IDE,or SCSI controller may control multiple storage media drives on asystem.

[0009] Storage System:

[0010] Storage system includes one or more storage media and the storageconnection and control media. Storage system also contains relatedsoftware modules to deliver storage services.

[0011] SAN:

[0012] SAN stands for storage area of network. It is a storage system,which provides computer host with block data service through storageconnection media, such as Fibre-optical cable, Ethernet cable or othermedia by using protocol based on IP, non-IP based such as Fibre-Channel,or others. IP SAN uses IP based protocol to provide storage raw blockdata services. All discussion of SAN in this invention are within thescope of a model of central controlled distributed scalable virtualmachine (CCDSVM).

[0013] DNS:

[0014] It stands for domain name server of network technology, which isa Internet software infrastructure. It helps any system on the net tofind its peer target system's network address in order to send themessage to its peer system.

[0015] SNMP:

[0016] An abbreviation for “Simple Network Management Protocol”, whichis a standard Internet protocol. The SNMP trap is a UDP packet sent bySNMP daemon on a SNMP agent system to SNMP network management stationthrough network link.

[0017] b) Figures:

[0018] 1) Distributed Virtual SAN Infrastructure.

[0019] 2) The Actual Components of Distributed Virtual SAN.

[0020] 3) Virtual SAN Automatic Configuration Protocol.

[0021] 4) Virtual SAN Auto Configuration Protocol Packet format.

[0022] 5) Example of Storage Volume Information of an IP SAN Unit.

[0023] 6) A Hypothetical Example of Storage Volume Requests andAssignment.

[0024] 7) Direct Attached Storage System.

[0025] 8) In-Bound Accessed Virtual Storage System.

[0026] 9) A Simplified Diagram of Central Controlled DistributedScalable Virtual Machine System.

[0027] 10) A Simplified Diagram of Disaster Recovery Scheme ofDistributed Virtual SAN Infrastructure.

[0028] In the drawing, like elements are designed by like referencenumbers.

BRIEF DESCRIPTIONS OF THE INVENTION

[0029] Today's corporate IT professional faces many challenges to handlethe ever increasing information and data. This often requires manyorganizations to expand their storage capacity, manage storage systemsand to keep the normal business run. Currently, The IP based NAS(network attached storage) effectively provides storage and services forend user's file system needs. On the other hand, at the enterpriselevel, the majority storage systems are still server directly attached(FIG. 7) and being accessed as raw block data devices through eithertraditional IDE, SCSI, Fibre Channel, or may be Ethernet.

[0030] The server direct attached storage system (FIG. 7) has manydrawbacks, which are described as follow:

[0031] a) Currently, the most advance storage management system onlycapable to handle 4 TB of data, which is far from good enough forenterprise storage management requirement.

[0032] b) The most of server directly attached storage has problems toexpand its capacity. In some case, it is quite often to requirepurchasing a new server in order to expand the storage. In other cases,it also requires to shutdown the server and to stop the normal operationin order to expand the storage capacity.

[0033] c) The storage being attached can only be accessed by theattached server and can not be shared by other even a server's storagehas spare capacity left while other server are in shortage of thestorage capacity within a department or cross department in aorganization.

[0034] d) Each attached storage system has to be managed separately andthis is a nightmare for IT professional.

[0035] e) With the attached storage system, the backup/restore has to gothrough the data network, this will tax the data network performance.

[0036] f) The SCSI only allow 12 meter distance for data accessing with15 storage devices while Fibre Channel is also limited to 10 kilometerslong. This effectively prevents them from being the best choice fordisaster recovery of the storage system.

[0037] g) The Fibre Channel based storage system cannot handle well forthe interoperability. Also, Fibre Channel based storage system isexpensive to build and to maintain.

[0038] There is a type of virtual SAN, which is in-band controlled andaccessed (FIG. 8), with which the data path from hosts (1 of FIG. 8) tothe SAN units (4 of FIG. 8) goes through virtual SAN control managementstation (2 of FIG. 8). It is not efficient in term of accessing the databy the hosts due to the virtual SAN control management station caneasily be a performance bottleneck. By same reason, the scalability ofthis type virtual SAN also is poor.

[0039] With the rapid development of high speed communicationtechnology, the problems mentioned above can be solved by an IP basedout-band accessed distributed virtual SAN infrastructure (FIG. 1) ofthis invention. With this invention, each hosts (1 of FIG. 1) candirectly access IP based SAN units (4 of FIG. 1) without go throughcontrol management station (3 of FIG. 1). The IP based out-band accesseddistributed virtual SAN infrastructure (FIG. 1) actually represents anexample of central controlled distributed scalable virtual machinesystem (CCDSVM) (FIG. 9). Wherein, each system units actually is a SANunit (4 of FIG. 1), specifically is an IP based SAN unit.

[0040] With this invention, each SAN unit (4 of FIG. 1) can be accessedby one or more hosts (1 of FIG. 1) and each hosts can access one or moreSAN units (FIG. 6). In addition, the storage accessing goes directlythrough communication link (2 of FIG. 1) between hosts (1 of FIG. 1) andSAN units (4 of FIG. 1) without involvement of the control managementstation (3 of FIG. 1). Further, the SAN units (4 of FIG. 1) can bedynamically added without interrupting normal data accessing from hosts(1 of FIG. 1) and they are controlled, monitored, and managed by controlmanagement station (3 of FIG. 1) through management console (10 of FIG.1). The control management station (3 of FIG. 1) may also accept storagevolume/partition requests from each hosts (1 of FIG. 1), and assign thematched volumes/partitions of SAN units (4 of FIG. 1) to these hosts.Therefore, each hosts (1 of FIG. 1) could directly access the rightvolumes/partitions of assigned SAN units without goes through controlmanagement station again.

[0041] This invention will become understood with reference to thefollowing description, claims, and accompanying figures.

DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

[0042]FIG. 1: Shows an example of simplified block diagram of IP basedout-band accessed distributed virtual SAN infrastructure, whichincludes:

[0043] a) Hosts (1):

[0044] It contains service software modules (9 of FIG. 1). The servicesoftware modules (9) communicate with control management software module(7) of control management station (3) to get storage information on aspecific IP SAN unit (4). It also communicate with service softwaremodules (6) of IP SAN unit (4) to get block data from SAN units (4 ofFIG. 1). The service software modules (9) can be implemented with anysuitable programming languages such as C,C++, Java or others and can useany suitable protocols such as IP based or non-IP based or otherprotocols.

[0045] The host could be any system such as a server, desktop or laptopPC, etc., which needs to access block data storage. The spare host (12of FIG. 1) represents a part of recovery scheme could be implemented inCCDSVM environment.

[0046] b) Network infrastructure (2):

[0047] It represents any kind of communication link, which could beeither a department LAN, corporate intranet, Internet infrastructure orothers. It consists switches, routers, gateways, cables (Ethernet,optical Fibre, and others), wireless communication media, or others. Thenetwork infrastructure provides data path between hosts (1), distributecontrol management station (3), and SAN Units (4). The networkinfrastructure also includes software infrastructure such as DNS or DHCPor others to help each systems on the net to find the target address forsending or receiving data within a network domain or in a cross domainenvironment.

[0048] To simplify the discussion, when describing send a message from asystem A to a system B, it will simply implied that the DNS or otherInternet address identification mechanism is used. In addition, themessage is send from source system A to target system B viacommunication link of this network infrastructure.

[0049] c) Control management station (3):

[0050] It includes distributing control management software modules (7)and console support software modules (8). To support web-based console,it must have web server software (15).

[0051] The distribute control management software modules (7)communicate with service modules (6) of IP SAN units (4) to get storageinformation for constructing a virtual SAN storage pool (11), to monitorIP SAN unit, and to perform various system operations, which includesstorage configuration and partitioning etc. It also communicates withservice software modules (9) of host (1) for distributing storagevolumes to each hosts (1). The distribute control management softwaremodules (7) can be implemented with any suitable programming languagessuch as C, C++, Java, XML etc. The communication protocols used bydistribute control management software (7) between control managementstation (3) and IP SAN units (4) could be any suitable IP basedprotocols. The communication between control management station andhosts (1) can be any suitable IP base or non-IP based or otherprotocols.

[0052] The console support software modules (8) get information of theIP SAN units (4) from distributed control management software modules(7) through inter-process communicate mechanism. It further providesthese information to web server software (15) through inter-processcommunication mechanism. The console support software modules (8) can beimplemented with any suitable programming languages such as C, C++,Java, XML etc.

[0053] The web server software (15) communicate with management consolesoftware (10) on console host (14) through web protocol such as HTTP toprovide end user centralized storage management capability for entiredistributed virtual SAN infrastructure. The web server software (15)could be an existing commercial software or other proprietary software.

[0054] To simplify discussion, the communication path mentioned abovewill be simply referred as console support software modules (8)communicate (send/receive) with management console (10) on console host(14) without further mentioning the role of web server software (15) oncontrol management station.

[0055] In addition, to support non-web based console, there is no needsof web server software (15) on control management station. In this case,the console support software modules (8) could communicate withmanagement console software (10) with a suitable protocol other than webprotocol such as HTTP.

[0056] d) IP SAN Units (4) and Virtual Storage Pool (11)

[0057] The IP SAN contains storage media, storage communication andcontrol media. The storage hardware media of each IP SAN unit might beconfigured into one or more logical volumes and each volume might hasseveral partitions (FIG. 5).

[0058] The IP SAN unit also contains block data service and otherservice software modules (6), which can communicate with distributecontrol management station (3) to provide storage information andperform storage operations. The service software modules (6) alsocommunicates with service software modules (9) of hosts (1) to provideblock data service for host. The service software modules (6) can beimplemented with any suitable programming languages such as C, C++,Java, etc and the communication protocols used by service softwaremodules (6) can be any suitable IP based protocol.

[0059] Multiple IP SAN units are organized and formed a virtual storagepool (11) by control management station (3) in this invention. Thevirtual storage pool may contain information of each IP SAN unit's IPaddress, the storage volumes of the block data, their address and sizesetc from each IP SAN units.

[0060] The spare IP SAN unit (13 of FIG. 1) represents part of recoveryscheme used in central controlled distributed scalable virtual machineenvironment.

[0061] e) Fibre Channel to IP Gateway (5):

[0062] It translates between Fibre Channel based protocol and IP basedprotocol so that Fibre Channel based SAN unit will appears as if IPbased SAN unit to the rest of world (FIG. 1).

[0063] f) Fibre Channel SAN Unit (6):

[0064] Similar to IP SAN unit except it uses Fibre Channel storagecontrol and connection media and it uses Fibre Channel protocol tocommunicate with parties. In addition, Fibre Channel SAN unit's (6 ofFIG. 2) will appears as an IP based SAN unit to this distributed virtualSAN once it connects to a Fibre Channel to IP gateway (5 of FIG. 2).Therefore, to simplify the discussion, it will be treated same as IP SANunit in all of following discussion without additional comments.

[0065] g) Management Console (10):

[0066] The management console on console host (14), which has beendescribed in pending patent of “Concurrent Web Based Multi-Task Supportfor Control Management System” by the same author. It could be acommercial or a proprietary Web browser, which is able to communicatewith web server software (15) on control management station (3) throughweb protocol such as HTTP. The Web browser could be implemented with anysuitable programming languages such as C, C++, Java, XML etc. Inaddition, the management console software module (10) could be anetworked software module other than a web browser. In this case, anyother suitable network protocol can be used instead of using webprotocol such as HTTP. All of these have been mentioned in section c)above.

[0067] To simplify the discussion, the communication path betweenmanagement console (10) on console host (14) and the console supportsoftware modules (8) on control management station (3) will not furthermention the role of web server software module (15) in this invention.

[0068] From management console (10), multiple concurrent systemoperations and tasks can be performed for entire distributed virtual SANinfrastructure. There are may be one or more management consoles ofdistributed virtual SAN infrastructure anywhere on the net.

[0069]FIG. 2: This figure is a portion of FIG. 1. It represents theactual virtual SAN. The multiple SAN unit forms a virtual Storage pool(11). The virtual storage pool may contain information of each IP SANunit's IP address, the storage volumes and their sizes etc.

[0070]FIG. 3: This diagram shows a protocol of virtual SAN automaticconfiguration and building as well as shutdown. The packet format usedwith this protocol is described in FIG. 4.

[0071]FIG. 4: This Diagram shows the message format, which used by“Virtual SAN Automatic Configuration Protocol” for sending and receivinga packet.

[0072]FIG. 5: This Fig. Shows the storage in an IP SAN unit, which maybe further divided into multiple volumes and each volume may be furtherdivided into multiple partitions. The volume refers to a logical storageunit in this discussion and it might contain multiple piece of storagespace from multiple storage hardware media.

[0073]FIG. 6: This figure actually is a simplified and a portion of FIG.1, which shows hypothetical example of how the Storage Volume of IP SANunits can being accessed by hosts. Where each IP SAN units are portionof virtual storage pool (11 of FIG. 2) and each hosts are those same aspresented in FIG. 1.

[0074]FIG. 7: The Direct Attached Storage System.

[0075]FIG. 8: In-Band Accessed Virtual SAN.

[0076] This Figure shows another type of virtual SAN, wherein, theactual storage data path from hosts to IP SAN units has to go throughcontrol management station.

[0077]FIG. 9: A Simplified Diagram of Central Controlled DistributedScalable Virtual Machine and referred as CCDSVM for brief With thisinvention, the systems in a CCDSVM can be flexibly organized intomultiple different service pools according to their functionality. Forexample, multiple IP SAN units can form a virtual SAN storage pool. Thehosts of CCDSVM could form other service pools to provide services otherthan storage service such as video service, security monitor services,and all other services provided on Web and on net etc.

[0078]FIG. 10: A Simplified Diagram of Disaster Recovery Scheme ofDistributed Virtual SAN Infrastructure, which consists one virtualstorage pool of multiple IP SAN units and one service pool of multiplehosts. It assumes that host 1 accesses IP SAN units 1 and 2 while host 3accesses IP SAN units 4 and 5. It also assumes that IP SAN unit 1 and 2are mirrored so that they have kept the same copy of data for host 1.The same to be true for IP SAN unit 4 and 5 with host 3. In addition, itassumes that IP SAN unit 3 is a spare unit and the host 2 is a sparehost.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0079] 1: Distributed Virtual SAN Infrastructure:

[0080]FIG. 1 Shows a simplified diagram of a distributed virtual SANinfrastructure according to this present invention. With thisinfrastructure, the distributed virtual SAN storage pool (11 of FIG. 1)comprises one or more SAN units (4 of FIG. 1), which connected to adistribute control management station (3 of FIG. 1) and can be accessedby one or more hosts (1 of FIG. 1) via network infrastructure (2 of FIG.1). The entire distributed virtual SAN infrastructure can be operatedthrough management console (10 of FIG. 1).

[0081] Virtual Storage Pool Auto Building and Initiating:

[0082] The virtual storage volume pool (11 of FIG. 1) of distributedvirtual SAN infrastructure (FIG. 1) can be initiated and updated wheneach IP SAN units (4 of FIG. 1) being booted and brought to online, andcan be updated when each IP SAN units being shutdown. The FIG. 3 showsthe distributed Virtual SAN Automatic Configuration Protocol, whichleads to the success of constructing the virtual storage pool (11 ofFIG. 1) of distributed virtual SAN infrastructure (FIG. 1) according tothis invention. The following steps have described the automaticbuilding sequence of storage volume pool of the virtual SAN based onthis protocol (FIG. 3). The protocol described bellow could be IP basedprotocol such as SNMP, or a much simple UDP protocol (FIG. 4), any othersuitable protocols.

[0083] a) When any of IP SAN unit (4 of FIG. 1) such as unit (n) broughtup to online, its SAN service modules (6 of FIG. 2) sent out a “SAN unit(n) startup” packet (FIG. 4) to distribute control management station (3of FIG. 1). This message could be a simple user defined UDP packet (FIG.4) with message type of system up. This message also could be a SNMPtrap of cold start packet, or link up packet (4 of FIG. 1) or othershort packet/message of any suitable IP protocols.

[0084] b) When distribute control management modules (7 of FIG. 1) ofdistribute control management station (3 of FIG. 1) receives IP SAN unit(n)'s message, it stores the IP SAN unit (n)'s information.

[0085] c) After storing information of the IP SAN unit, the controlmanagement modules (7 of FIG. 1) on distribute control managementstation (3 of FIG. 1) sends back a “need SAN unit (n)'s storage info”packet to IP SAN unit (n) (4 of FIG. 1).

[0086] d) When SAN service modules (6 of FIG. 1) on IP SAN unit (n) (4of FIG. 1) received packet of “need SAN unit (n)'s storage info”, itgets storage information on IP SAN unit (n) (4 of FIG. 1), whichincludes the number of storage volumes, each volume's start address(logical block address, LBA), length, and the end address (logical blockaddress, LBA). The SAN service modules (6 of FIG. 1) then send back apacket of “unit (n) storage info”, which includes all informationobtained to control management station (3 of FIG. 1).

[0087] e) After receiving “unit (n) storage info” packet from IP SANunit (n) (4 of FIG. 1), the distribute control management modules (7 ofFIG. 1) on distribute control management station (3 of FIG. 1) updatesits stored information of virtual storage pool (11 of FIG. 1) withcorresponding storage information of IP SAN unit (n) from packet.

[0088] f) When any IP SAN unit (n) shutting down, the service module (6of FIG. 1) of IP SAN unit (n) (4 of FIG. 1) sends “Unit (n) shutdown” todistribute control management station (3 of FIG. 1). This shutdownmessage could be an SNMP trap of link down, or a much simple UDP packet(FIG. 4) with message type of system down, or other short packet basedon some other protocols.

[0089] g) After received “unit (n) shutdown” packet from IP SAN unit (n)(4 of FIG. 1), the distribute control management modules (7 of FIG. 1)on distribute control management station (3 of FIG. 1) updatesinformation of the virtual storage pool (11 of FIG. 1) that specific forIP SAN unit (n) (4 of FIG. 1).

[0090] Distributing Storage Volumes in Pool for Hosts Accessing:

[0091] After one or more IP SAN units (4 of FIG. 1) are brought intoonline, the control management station (3 of FIG. 1) has ownedinformation of storage volumes and networking for all IP SAN unit (4 ofFIG. 1) in the virtual storage pool (11 of FIG. 1). Therefore, thecontrol management station (3 of FIG. 1) is able to distributing storagevolumes to hosts (1 of FIG. 1) in several steps.

[0092] For example, First, the host 1 (1 of FIG. 1) sends request tocontrol management station (3 of FIG. 1), such as needs 80 GB ofstorage. Second, the control management station (3 of FIG. 1) storeshost 1 information and search for availability of 80 GB of storagevolume. It found the volume 2 on IP SAN unit M (FIG. 6). Third, thecontrol management station (3 of FIG. 1) sends the requested informationof host 1 to IP SAN unit M (FIG. 6), which include the IP address ofhost 1, the requested storage size. The control management station (3 ofFIG. 1) also sends storage volume information of IP SAN unit M to host1(1 of FIG. 1), which includes the IP address of IP SAN unit M, thevolume number and the size, the volume's starting and ending logicaladdress block (LBA) etc. Therefore, all parties of three keep the samestorage volume assignment information in sync. Fourth, once the host 1(1 of FIG. 1) and IP SAN unit M (FIG. 6) get each other's information,the host (1 of FIG. 1) can directly and independently access the volume2 on IP SAN unit M right way with respect of security checking by IP SANunit M.

[0093] Alternatively, These steps may also be semi-automatically setupwith assisting of system operations performed from management console(10 of FIG. 1). For example, first an administrator could setup volume 2of IP SAN unit M (FIG. 6) to be exclusively accessed by host 1 (1 ofFIG. 1) as long as he acknowledges that host 1 needs such size ofstorage volume. Second, the administrator also can setup the host 1 withall information needed to access volume 2 of IP SAN unit M (FIG. 6).Finally, the host 1 (1 of FIG. 1) can access volume 2 of IP SAN unit M(FIG. 6) directly without goes through control management station (3 ofFIG. 1).

[0094] Dynamic Capacity Expanding:

[0095] After distributed virtual SAN storage pool (11 of FIG. 1)initiated, the host (1 of FIG. 1) will be able to access the volume onassigned IP SAN unit (4 of FIG. 1) in the pool (11 of FIG. 1) directlywithout the control management stations' involvement (3 of FIG. 1). Thiswill allow the storage pool (11 of FIG. 1) of this distributed virtualSAN infrastructure (FIG. 1) to continue expanding without effect anyhosts (1 of FIG. 1) to continue accessing the storage volumes onassigned IP SAN units (4 of FIG. 1) in the pool. As a result, thisguarantees that the distributed virtual SAN storage pool (11 of FIG. 2)can be dynamically expanded without interrupting any normal storageoperations and accessing of entire distributed virtual SAN storage pool(11 of FIG. 2).

[0096] Scalability:

[0097] Once the distributed virtual SAN storage pool (11 of FIG. 1)being constructed, each hosts (1 of FIG. 1) can access one or more IPSAN units (4 of FIG. 1) in the storage pool (11 of FIG. 1) ofdistributed virtual SAN infrastructure (FIG. 1) whenever it requested.For example, host 1 (FIG. 6) can access IP SAN unit 1, unit 2, and unitM (FIG. 6) after it requested and granted by control management station(3 of FIG. 1). This effectively provides scalable storage system foreach hosts (1 of FIG. 1) within distributed virtual SAN infrastructure(FIG. 1) of this invention. Further, the distributed virtual SANinfrastructure (FIG. 1) provides far better scalability than the in-bandaccessed virtual SAN (FIG. 8), wherein, the scalability of in-bandaccessed virtual SAN were severely limited by the bottlenecked controlmanagement station (FIG. 8).

[0098] Storage Sharing:

[0099] Once the distributed virtual SAN storage pool (11 of FIG. 1)being constructed, each IP SAN units (4 of FIG. 1) in the pool ofdistributed virtual SAN infrastructure (FIG. 1) may be hold multiplestorage volumes in the form of block data for one or more hosts (1 ofFIG. 1) accessing. Therefore, it will allow multiple hosts (1 of FIG. 1)to share an IP SAN unit (4 of FIG. 1) by granting and assigning eachhost to exclusively access particular volumes on that IP SAN unit (4 ofFIG. 1). The FIG. 6 demonstrates such a storage sharing, wherein, IP SANunit 2 of FIG. 6 has three volumes, which named volume 1, volume 2, andvolume 3. The block data service modules (6 of FIG. 1) on IP SAN unit 2of FIG. 6 can arrange share volume 1 with host 1 and shares volume 2with host 2 exclusively.

[0100] Performance:

[0101] With in-band accessed virtual SAN (FIG. 8), the controlmanagement station could be a performance bottleneck. With distributedvirtual SAN of this invention each hosts (1 of FIG. 1) can directly andindependently accessing any IP SAN unit (4 of FIG. 1). Therefore, theperformance of storage accessing for each hosts will not be effected andcan match the performance of direct attached storage system (FIG. 7)when the high speed network connecting media is deployed in distributedvirtual SAN infrastructure (FIG. 1).

[0102] Centralized Management of Distributed Virtual SAN:

[0103] The storage management console on a console host (10 of FIG. 1)can communicate with console support software module (8 of FIG. 1) oncontrol management station (3 of FIG. 1) and to further get informationof all IP SAN units (4) from control management modules (7 of FIG. 1) ofcontrol management station (3 of FIG. 1). Therefore, it can providescentralized management functionality for entire distributed virtual SANstorage pool (11 of FIG. 1), hosts (1 of FIG. 1), and the controlmanagement station itself (3 of FIG. 1). With multiple concurrent taskssupporting in console support software module (8 of FIG. 1) of controlmanagement station (3 of FIG. 1), the storage management support console(10 of FIG. 1) can provide a full range of system operations and tasks.In addition, multiple system tasks and operations can be runconcurrently throughout the entire distributed virtual SAN and hosts.These management tasks includes storage configuration, storage volumeallocation and assignment, storage partition and repartitioning,storage, network, and other resource usage and activities monitoring,etc.

[0104] Disaster Recoverability:

[0105] The use of DNS or may be other IP address identificationmechanism helps this distributed virtual SAN infrastructure overcome thegeometric region limitation and work well in either cross networkdomains environment or in a single network domain environment.Therefore, any IP SAN unit or host as well as control management stationcould be anywhere on corporate Intranet, on department LAN, or onInternet. As a result, it is possible to have a disaster recoverabilityplan goes beyond 100 miles long vs traditional 10 kilometer limitation.

[0106] In addition, the disaster recovery plan of distributed virtualSAN infrastructure can be flexibly implemented as showing in FIG. 10.With this recovery plan, the host 1 or 3 (1 of FIG. 10) can continue tooperate whenever one of its mirrored IP SAN units failed (3 of FIG. 10).Also, the spare IP SAN unit can be used to quickly replace the failed IPSAN unit whenever there is needs. On the other hand, the hosts (1 ofFIG. 10) also can be organized into a service pool such as fordistributing video service, distributed database pool, distributedsecurity monitor services, and all other services provided on net and onWeb. Therefore, whenever host 1 or 3 failed, the spare host can quicklytake over their assigned IP SAN storage and replace them to continueprovide service to the end user.

What is claimed is: 1: The IP based out-band accessed DistributedScalable Virtual SAN is a new scheme for IP based storage system and itconsists of a) Multiple IP SAN units. b) Distributed control andmanagement station. c) Network interconnecting infrastructure. d)Storage management console. This virtual SAN can be accessed by e)Hosts. IP SAN Unit: 2: The method of claim 1, item a) further includesIP SAN unit runs with operating system such as Linux, various Unix, MSWindow, real-timed OS, or others. It contains IP SAN services softwaremodules, which is able to provide management services to distributecontrol management station through IP based or non-IP based protocols,and to provide block data service to one or more hosts through IP basedcommunication protocols. The service software modules on IP SAN unitcould be implemented with any suitable programming languages such as C,C++, Java, XML or others. 3: The method of claim 1, item a) furtherincludes A Fibre Channel Based SAN unit can appear as an IP based SAN,as long as a Fibre Channel to IP gateway used to translate the protocolbetween Fibre Channel and IP. 4: The claim 1, wherein, item a) furtherincludes Each IP SAN unit must contain the storage media, which could bemagnetic disk drive, optical disk drive, solid state disk drive, ormemory cards and the related storage control media. Each IP SAN unitmust contains the network connection media, which could be thecontroller of either Ethernet, or other media, which support IP basedprotocol. Fibre Channel based SAN or other SAN may contain Fibre Channelor other connection media. The Control Management Station: 5: The methodof claim 1, wherein, item (b) further includes a) The control managementstation contains control management software modules, which communicatewith service software modules of IP SAN unit through suitable IP ornon-IP based protocols. Therefore, it can get and store all necessaryinformation of each IP SAN units, to provide control, monitor, andmanagement for multiple IP SAN units, and to construct virtual storagepool. b) The control management software also can communicate to theservice software modules on hosts and hence to provide control, monitor,and management for hosts through suitable IP based or non-IP basedprotocols. c) The control management software modules can be implementedwith any suitable programming languages such as C, C++, Java, XML etc.6: The method of claim 1, wherein, item (b) further includes a) Thecontrol management station contains console support software modules andweb server software, which communicate with console software (webbrowser) of console host to provide full ranges of multiple concurrentsystem operations and tasks for entire distributed virtual SAN storagesystem as well as for each hosts. b) The console support softwaremodules of control management station communicate with controlmanagement software modules and with web server software modules throughinter-process communication on native control management station. c) Theconsole support software can be implemented with any suitableprogramming languages such as C, C++, Java, XML etc. The web serversoftware could be any off the shelf commercial software or a proprietarysoftware which uses web protocol such as HTTP communication protocol. d)If non-web based console supported, there is no need for web serversoftware module on control management station. In this case, the consolesupport software modules must be capable to communicate with consolesoftware of console host by using protocol other than web protocol(HTTP). 7: The method of claim 1, wherein, item (b) further includes Thecontrol management station could be a server, desktop or laptop PC, or acommunication system, or a device, which is able to control, managelarge number of IP SAN units and hosts. The control management stationhas operating system running such as Linux, various Unix, MS Window,real-time OS, or others. The Network Interconnecting Infrastructure: 8:The method of claim 1, wherein, item c) further includes a) Networkinfrastructure represents any kind of communication link, which connectscontrol management station, IP SAN units, and hosts together. b) Itconsists communication system such as switches, routers or gateways, andit also consists with network cable (Fibre optical or cat5, or othercable) or wireless connection media. c) In order for the distributedvirtual SAN units, control management station and hosts be operated notonly in single domain environment but also in a cross network domainsenvironment, the network address identification software infrastructuresuch as DNS or others is required. Management Console on Console Host:9: The method of claim 1, wherein, item d) further includes Themanagement console is a software, which could be an off the shelfcommercial web browser running on console host and using web protocolsuch as HTTP. The console host could be a server, desktop or laptop PC,or a communication system, or a device. It could be an independentsystem anywhere on the net or just is the control management stationitself. There may be multiple console hosts and each one has a storagemanagement console software. The management console softwarecommunicates with console support software modules and web serversoftware on control management station. It is able to obtain informationof entire distributed virtual SAN infrastructure and to allow user toperform concurrent multiple simultaneous tasks and operations on entireIP SAN units of this distributed virtual SAN and on hosts. To supportnon-Web based console, instead of using web browser, a special consolesoftware module is required, which shall be able to communicate withconsole support software modules of control management station by usingprotocols other than web protocol (HTTP). This special console softwarecould be implemented with any suitable programming languages. The Hosts:10: The claim 1, further includes Hosts contain service softwaremodules, which allow it to communicate with control management stationthrough suitable IP based protocol or any suitable non-IP protocols toget necessary storage information within entire distributed virtual SAN.In addition, the service software also can perform various tasks onhosts in responding to the tasks assigned by control management stationand issued from web-console. Th service software modules alsocommunicate with service modules of IP SAN unit directly throughsuitable IP based protocols to access the block data of any IP SAN unitafter that storage volume being assigned by the control managementstation. The service software modules on host could be implemented withany suitable programming languages such as C, C++, Java, XML etc. Thehosts could be a server, desktop or laptop PC, or a communicationsystem, or a device, which can communicate to IP SAN units utilize theblock data provide by IP SAN unit. The host has operating system runningsuch as Linux, various Unix, MS Window, real-time OS, or others. TheMethod of Virtual SAN Storage Pool Automatic Construction Either in aSingle Network Domain or in Cross Network Domains Environment: 11: TheVirtual SAN Storage Pool can be automatically configured and built in asingle network domain or in cross network domains environment based on:a) “Virtual SAN storage pool automatic configuration protocol” b) The IPaddress identification software such as DNS (domain name server)software in the network infrastructure. 12: The methods of claim 11,wherein, item a) further comprises protocol sequence for automaticconstructing storage pool of distributed virtual IP SAN: 1) When any ofIP SAN units brought up to online, its SAN service modules sent out a“SAN unit (n) startup” packet to distribute control management station.2) When distribute control management modules of distribute controlmanagement station receives IP SAN unit (n) message, it stores the IPSAN unit (n)'s information. It then sends back a “need SAN unit (n)'sstorage info” packet to IP SAN unit (n). 3) When SAN service modules onIP SAN unit (n) received the packet of “need SAN unit (n)'s storageinfo”, it gets storage information on IP SAN unit (n), and then sendback a packet of “unit (n) storage info”, which includes all informationit obtained to distribute control management station. 4) After receiving“unit (n) storage info” packet from IP SAN unit (n), the distributecontrol management modules on distribute control management stationupdates its stored IP SAN units with corresponding storage informationof IP SAN unit (n) from packet. 13: The methods of claim 11, wherein,item a) further comprises protocol sequence for update storage pool ofdistributed virtual SAN when any IP SAN unit shuts down: When any IP SANunit (n) shutting down, the service module of IP SAN unit (n) sends“Unit (n) shutdown” to distribute control management station. Afterreceived “unit (n) shutdown” packet from IP SAN unit (n), the distributecontrol management modules on distribute control management stationupdates the stored information for that specific of IP SAN unit (n) andfor the distributed IP SAN virtual storage pool. 14: The claim 12,wherein, item 2), 3) and 4) further includes The “storage info” inpacket includes the number of storage volumes, each volume's startaddress (logical block address, LBA), volume size, and the end address(logical block address, LBA) of each volume etc. 15: The method of claim11, wherein, Item a) further includes the “Virtual SAN automaticconfiguration protocol” be executed at the time of IP SAN unit systemstartup (boot up) if the IP SAN unit was powered off, or at the time ofnetwork link bring up if the IP SAN unit's network link was down. Itema) further requires the “Virtual SAN automatic configuration protocol”be executed at IP SAN unit shutdown time. 16: The method of claim 11,wherein, item a) further clarify “Virtual SAN automatic configurationprotocol” could be an UDP/IP based protocol or any suitable IP basedprotocol with same protocol scenario and sequence for boot-up andshutdown. 17: The method of claim 11, wherein, item a) further clarifiesthe startup packet, which sent by IP SAN unit to distribute controlmanagement station, could be a SNMP trap of cold start, a SNMP trap oflink up, or a much simple UDP packet. 18: The method of claim 11,wherein, item a) further clarifies The shutdown packet, which sent by IPSAN unit to distributed control management station, could be a SNMP trapof link down or a much simple UDP packet, which indicates a system down.Method of Supporting Storage Volumes on Demanding: 19: The claim 11further includes that the virtual storage pool of entire distributedvirtual SAN can provide storage service on demanding to all hosts: a)From the management console, the entire virtual storage pool can beconfigured, partitioned, and each volumes on any IP SAN units can beassigned to each individual hosts based on demand. b) Based on assignedinformation, each hosts can directly negotiate with assigned IP SAN unitand further to directly access the assigned storage volumes of IP SANunit without go through control management station. Dynamic CapacityExpanding: 20: The claim 12, claim 13 and together with claim 19 item b)further includes and evidenced a) The entire virtual storage pool can bedynamically expanded and updated without interrupting the normal storageoperating and accessing. b) At any time an idle IP SAN unit can bebrought into virtual storage pool or a not used IP SAN unit in the poolcan be brought down while other IP SAN units in the storage pool arebeing accessed or configured. Scalability: 21: The claim 19 and claim 20further include and evidence a) Each host can request and be assignedwith multiple storage volumes partitions on multiple different IP SANunits in the storage pool, and further to access them. b) The virtualstorage pool can guarantee to have spare storage volumes due to any newIP SAN unit can be brought into virtual storage pool at any timewhenever there is demand. c) Each host can guarantee to expand andscales up its storage system dynamically by requesting spare storagevolumes in the virtual storage pool. d) This out-band accesseddistributed virtual SAN provides a far better scalability than thein-band accessed virtual SAN due to the scalability of in-band accessedvirtual SAN were severely limited by the bottlenecked control managementstation Storage Sharing: 22: The claim 19 further includes that thestorage of each single IP SAN unit in virtual storage pool ofdistributed virtual SAN can be shared by multiple hosts. a) Each IP SANunit in virtual storage pool can be configured and partitioned withmultiple volumes and to be assigned to multiple hosts. b) With blockdata service modules' support on each IP SAN unit in distributed virtualSAN, when multiple hosts have been assigned volumes on a same IP SANunit, each host can exclusively access assigned volume on the same IPSAN unit simultaneously. Performance: 23: The claim 19, wherein, item b)further includes that out-band accessed distributed virtual SAN providesbetter performance than the in-band accessed virtual SAN. a) Withdistributed virtual SAN of this invention each hosts can directly andindependently accessing any IP SAN unit without go through controlmanagement station. b) Unlike in-band accessed virtual SAN, without-band accessed distributed virtual SAN, the control managementstation will not be a performance bottleneck. Disaster Recoverability:24: The claim 8, wherein, item c) further includes that the operation ofdistributed IP SAN infrastructure in cross network domains environmentallow a much powerful disaster recovery plan to be implemented. Any IPSAN unit (including mirrored or spared) or host (including spared) aswell as control management station could be anywhere on corporateIntranet, on Internet or on LAN, therefore, it is possible to have adisaster recoverability plan goes beyond 100 miles long vs traditional10 kilometer limitation. 25: The claim 21, wherein, item a) furtherincludes The IP based distributed virtual SAN infrastructure can providemultiple hosts each with a pair of mirrored IP SAN units, therefore,whenever one of mirrored IP SAN unit had broken, the host own that pairof mirrored IP SAN units can continue to operate normally withoutstopping. The IP based distributed virtual SAN infrastructure also cankeep certain ratio of spared IP SAN unit. Therefore, whenever a mirroredIP SAN unit is broken, the spared IP SAN unit can replace the broken oneif there is needs. Centralized Management of Distributed Virtual SANInfrastructure: 26: The claim 9 further includes that the support ofmanagement console of this distributed virtual SAN infrastructureprovides centralized management functionality for all IP SAN units,control management station and all hosts within this infrastructure.With multiple concurrent tasks supporting in console support softwaremodules of control management station, from the management console, usercan issue a full range of multiple concurrent system operations andtasks throughout the entire distributed virtual SAN and hosts. Themanagement tasks includes storage configuration, storage volumeallocation and assignment, storage partition and repartitioning,resource and activity monitoring for storage, network, all hosts andothers etc. The Security: 27: The claim 26 further includes thatmanagement capability of control management station also includes thesecurity management at multiple levels. It is to provide securityprotection at control management station level, at IP SAN unit level, ormay be at hosts level. 28: The claim 27 and the claim 19, wherein, itemb) further include At control management level, it provides securityauthentication for the user from management console such as providepassword mechanism and provide security screening to determine aspecific task or operation is allowed for a specific user and for aspecific IP SAN or host system. At IP SAN unit level, it providesmechanism to determine if a particular host is permitted to accessstorage volume on a particular IP SAN unit during negotiation process.29: The claim 28, claim 27 further include Similar security may imposeon host systems. Non-IP Based SAN: 30: To let IP SAN unit to work in anon-IP network environment, the IP SAN unit must be capable to supportnon-IP based protocol or the IP SAN units may be replaced by other typeof SAN unit, which support non-IP based protocol. All claims, whichdescribed previously can apply to non-IP based distributed virtual SANinfrastructure. The Application of Automatic Construction of VirtualStorage Pool for Other Distributed Scalable Virtual Machine: 31: Themethods of claim 11, 12, and 13 further include: The method andprinciple of automatic constructing virtual storage pool of thedistributed virtual SAN infrastructure can be applied to other type ofdistributed virtual machine in forming multiple different type ofresource pools and multiple different type of application service pools.For example, they could be Web service pool, video service pool,security monitor service pool, database service pool etc. 32: The claim14 and claim 31 further include To effectively apply the methods andprinciples of automatic constructing virtual storage pool of thisinvention to other type of distributed virtual machine, the IP SAN unitsmy be replaced by other type of system units. In addition, the “storageinfo” in the packet may be replaced with other type of information,which specifically can be used by other type of distributed virtualmachine to construct different type of service pool. These differenttype of application service pools or resource pools of the distributedvirtual machine will have similar advantages, which have been describedpreviously such as dynamic capacity expanding, scalability, performance,disaster recoverability, security, centralized management and supportservice on demanding, etc. 33: The claim 26 further includes The abilityof managing for a group of hosts and the ability to organize virtualservice pool will allow console support software and control managementsoftware of control management station to organize hosts into one ormore other type of service pools. Further, these service pools canprovide services to client systems on the net. The Software Modules ofCentral Controlled Distributed Scalable Virtual Machine System: 34: Theclaims 1 through claim 33 further include that The software modules ofIP based out-band-accessed distributed virtual SAN infrastructure havecombined the Web technology, network and system management technology,and the distributed clustering system technology together. They includeconsole support software modules and control management software moduleson control management station, the service software modules on IP SANunit as well as web server software. The software modules of IP basedout-band-accessed distributed virtual SAN infrastructure actually formsa basic model of Web-Based virtual operation system for centralcontrolled distributed scalable virtual machine (CCDSVM) because of itsability to support configure resource, support concurrent multi-tasks,and deliver services over entire virtual machine. 35: The claim 26, and34 further includes This virtual operating system of distributed virtualmachine can effectively provide streamlined operations for all systemssuch as from managing, configuring storage and other resources, managingnetwork, and delivering different services or contents to other clientsystems on the net. 36: The claim 6 and claim 9 further includes that Ifthere is needs, a less effective non-web-based console can be built forall type of CCDSVM by replacing web server software on controlmanagement station with a network communication software module andreplacing web browser on console host with another network communicationsoftware. 37: The claim 8, wherein, item c) and claim 11, wherein, itemb) further includes Without Internet address identification softwareinfrastructure such as DNS, the IP based out-band accessed distributedvirtual SAN or other CCDSVM system may be degenerate to work in LANenvironment only. In LAN environment, other IP address identificationmechanism may be used such as DHCP etc. 38: The claim 15, claim 16 andclaim 33 further includes A less inter-operative, less compatibledistributed virtual SAN or other CCDSVM system can be built if usingnon-IP based protocol with all software modules described in thisinvention.